[neact] Re: NEACT Summer Conference - please respond
- From: Stephen Stepenuck <sstepenuck@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "neact@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <neact@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:13:57 -0500
Another superb conference theme?broad enough to have something interesting
to ³everybody²!
Now all we have to do is pick the presenters very carefully?and have the
Program Committee watch the Big Picture, i.e. make certain that the actual
presentations are representative of such a broad topic, while still offering
lots of teaching/learning help vs. classroom and lab.
I would absolutely ask for help from ACS with this...try to develop a
personal working relationship with an appropriate staffer there. There
should be tons of freebies available through them, as well as excellent,
proved speakers.
Congratulations again!
Steve
P.S. I just checked?the place is ON the shore of Sebago Lake! Bring your
kayaks and canoes [and judging by the dates, also bring containers for
blueberries]!
It is 18 mi. W of Portland [and Freeport is only 10 mi. N of Portland ;-)
].
You wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This summer¹s NEACT conference will be held Aug 1-4 at St. Joseph¹s in Maine.
> It is 30 minutes outside of Portland; 2 hours north of Boston. In recognition
> of the UN declaring 2011 the International Year of Chemistry, we have decided
> to have the theme of this year¹s summer conference be: Chemistry in Today¹s
> World. I have been thinking about the presentations for this topic and have
> listed below several I would like to see. I welcome your suggestions for
> speakers and other ideas for presentations.
>
> One type of presentation under this topic would include teaching in today¹s
> world. Presentations could include what is the public¹s view of chemistry and
> how can we, as chemistry teachers influence that. Also, given the recession,
> I would love someone to lead a workshop or presentation on ideas of how to
> teach effectively with overly large class sizes. We should have a
> presentation on teaching critical thinking and the scientific method vs.
> teaching content to meet the requirements of the various standardized and AP
> tests. I would also like to see a workshop on how to teach critical thinking.
> Texting is becoming the bane of many teachers does anyone want to lead a
> workshop on how we can use this type of ubiquitous technology for our
> advantage? We keep hearing that we are way behind other countries in Math
> and Science. What are the other countries doing differently? Can we learn
> from them?
>
> Another type of presentation could be around world issues: The third world
> has many issues that chemistry can mitigate or solve. One of the biggest
> issues is safe drinking water. I would like to see a presentation on the
> challenges and chemistry solutions that are out there to bring clean water to
> people. I recall a Chematters article from several years ago that talked
> about some communities that once they built wells became terribly sick due to
> Arsenic leaching into them. I¹m sure that there are a plethora of great water
> related labs that someone could connect to that presentation with a workshop.
> Food is another huge issue facing much of the world. How is genetic
> modification, pesticides, organic farming and such addressing these issues?
> Another good presentation would be from someone who can explain the various
> roles that chemistry played in cleaning up the BP oil spill.
>
> One of the roles that we as educators face is trying to connect chemistry to
> the ³real² world. As part of this, many schools have started teaching a
> forensic science course at their schools. There were several requests in the
> feedback forms after the last conference to have some forensic workshops (with
> the focus on the chemistry more than the bio).
>
> I am currently trying to see if we can have an additional component of the
> summer conference include an in-depth safety training.
>
> These are ideas I¹m sure that you can come up with even better ones under
> this theme. I need your help in coming up with good presentations and
> workshops and help finding presenters. If you can give me any suggestions on
> people to contact who might be able to talk on the ideas suggested above, or
> ones that you come up with, PLEASE contact me. I can¹t do this without your
> help. Feel free to volunteer yourself! Our budget is pretty low, as we try
> to keep the conference cost down so keep that in mind when thinking of
> speakers. However we have found that sometimes even professionals from
> industry are willing to speak for free or just a small honorarium given who we
> are.
>
> Thanks so much for your continuing support for NEACT and all your great ideas.
>
> Jerusha Vogel
> NEACT President
> 2011 Summer Conference Program Chair
>
>
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